Because the source for Norbert-Elias-The Civilising-Process-for-Dummies notion I have is not even Journal of Saw It Somewhere Studies, it is Proceedings of I Think I Heard This In A Conference Presentation Once.
Anyway, I was given to think about it by reading various of those infuriating accounts of people not observing requirements to wear masks ( Read more... )

Dept of, there was never that golden age, srsly:
If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
Civility among people who disagree with one another.
Not so much 'Don't Mock' in Frankie Howerd voice, as gloomy sardonic laughter, directed at St Vincent in the Q&A in today's Guardian Weekend.
Dept of, actually this is not ( Read more... )

There may also be a report on touristic-type activities undertaken around conference I am attending tomorrow.
In lieu of other content, have my thorts on this etiquette question.
We consider that if you are flaunting your precious pricey vintage crystal, you should conduct yourself in the spirit of the great lady recorded by GB Stern, who, when ( Read more... )

As in, first paper in first session.
So there's that, and a few people saying they liked it, or that they were sorry to miss it (parallel sessions).
Also I have been able to connect to eduroam, which is sometimes a problem.
Plus, foregathering with people last saw in South Dakota, which was fun - seems like ages ago! which of course it hasn't been ( Read more... )

We should like to state, upfront, and this probably does not come as a surprise to our dr rdrz, that we are much of a mind with Miss Manners on the subject of promiscuous social hugging: see also, my thought on the unwelcome intrusion of doing the smoochies in professionally-related contexts.
So compared to that, going WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? at ( Read more... )

Contacting someone less than a fortnight before an event to ask them to 'run a one-hour workshop and join a 45 minute panel' on a topic that seems entirely vague to me, by somebody associated with an 'incubator building social enterprise solutions'. WHUT. (I've been to the website and it's written in bollox-generatorese, or maybe I am turning into ( Read more... )

It's that thing where one dispraises or insults a thing, but, on reflection, is that really what's being said?
E.g. I rather like Jay Rayner's line 'I refuse to denigrate the honest pleasures of self-abuse purely to make a point' because, indeed, is this not a harmless private pleasure?
I also have my doubts about 'were they raised by wolves?' to ( Read more... )

Thinking about all those wails and groans from men about witch-hunts and the tsunami of neo-puritanism that means they no longer know how to sign off an email to a female colleague without fear of raging maenads surging into their office, and what are they supposed to doooo, what are the ruuuuules any more -
I was thinking the other day that over ( Read more... )

And more from Mrs Humphrey:
No mansplaining, fellas! To be “talked down to” is always aggravating, especially when one feels a conviction that the person who is thus affably stooping for one’s benefit belongs in reality to a lower intellectual plane than one’s own.

Nor is a tone of faux-intimacy recommended: A very confidential tone is always used ( Read more... )

Heavy mist almost amounting to fog this morning, still a little hazy by the pm but visibility okay. Several takers for the walk, but, although I have been thinking I am perhaps not on my top form at present, was well out in front, and chatting to the trainer (who has been there for years). Gratifying.
Also, doing Flex and Stretch this morning, came ( Read more... )